Nobel Literature Winner Skirts Support for Dissident

By

Anna Molin

Dec. 6, 2012 12:37 p.m. ET

STOCKHOLM—Nobel literature prize winner Mo Yan dodged requests Thursday to repeat comments supportive of Chinese countryman and jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo, and said censorship may be necessary to stop the dissemination of untrue rumors and insults but that he was against censoring the truth.

Mo Yan, real name Guan Moye, repeatedly skirted calls to reiterate comments made at an October news conference in China when he said he hoped...